More and more people continue to stream on their devices over watching television. So the tech and entertainment worlds are beginning to look into how they can capitalize on that. Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, the former CEOs of DreamWorks Animation and Hewlett Packard/eBay, respectively, have announced that they’ve secured funding from some of the world’s biggest entertainment corporations for NewTV.
Katzenberg and Whitman announced last week that they’ve secured US $1 billion in funding for the NewTV project. Backers such as Disney, 21st Century Fox and Alibaba have joined forces to fund the project. O’Melveny, the legal team that offered financial advising to Alibaba in the investment process, announced in a press release that NewTV “will acquire and produce short-form premium content and sell it via subscription to mobile-device users.” China’s Alibaba currently stands as the eastern hemisphere’s biggest e-commerce company. Alibaba is often compared to Amazon, rivaling for the title of biggest e-commerce outlet in the world.
NewTV aims to compete with streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu. The service will offer monthly subscriptions to original short-form series’ and other video content. Plans for the app have it projected to launch in 2019. The service will compete with companies such as HBO. They plan to produce their own original content, exclusive to the NewTV platform.
Rumors are circulating the web that Disney will be creating its own streaming service in the near future. Disney officially purchased 21st Century Fox for US $71.3 billion. It also terminated its deal with Netflix just a few months ago. Does this mean the company will be utilizing NewTV for this deal? Or will the massive conglomerate simply be creating its own content for the platform?
With most of Hollywood investing in the NewTV deal it’s hard to think it won’t be successful. Data shows that the average person now spends five hours per day using their mobile devices. It’s no wonder that companies are choosing to invest in creating exclusive content for that exact purpose. It’s too early to tell exactly how NewTV will impact the entertainment industry. But the company plans to utilize its budget to create high-quality content that will compete with other major TV shows on-air right now.
